BudgetPak

Pros

Our end users have most liked that this software does not look like excel. It is user friendly. The ability to quickly and easily roll up the budgets will be a huge time saver.

Cons

The software does not yet accommodate balance sheet budgeting.

Pros

The integration was seamless. The implementation team at Xlerant was organized, responsive, and knowledgable. The product is easy to use for both our admins and end-users.

The product meets all of our needs: it's fully customizable and there are are several reporting options. Forecasting, and creating several budget scenarios is important to us. BudgetPak met those requirements too.

Cons

Nothing to report here. I honestly can't think of any cons.

Pros

The choice of menus allows users to work with whatever best fits them.

Cons

Terms unique to this software are not translated to the new user. If you are not the one who set up the software, the terms are undefined.

Pros

It's a easy to use automated budget tracking software that offers many powerful features to manage your budgeting and allows you to create your financial planning more effectively in very short time.

Cons

I didn't face any issues with the features they provides but yes I feel that their is a limited functionality to manage your budget.

Pros

End user experience is easy and intuitive. I especially love the ability to establish monthly budgets which provides a much greater probability for accurate year-end forecasts. The numerous ad hoc reports and MyExcel features are also dynamic and incredibly useful.

Cons

While Xlerant offers wonderful and ready customer service, we still found the installation process very time consuming and quite challenging. Also, you need a person dedicated to the continued administration of this software.

Pros

BudgetPak is a cloud based software, user friendly and easy to use for the non-financial user.

Cons

As Administrators, when you make changes in your company configuration, the Validation and Initialization process can take at least 1 hour or more to run. While this is happening, no other end users are able to see or work on their budgets since system is under maintenance.

Pros

In 2008 our Company (at one of the Operating Group Headquarters location) was looking for a budgeting software tool to replace our Excel workbooks to prepare our annual budget and forecast. After considering 6 different budgeting software packages BudgetPak was the clear winner for the ease of implementation, but more importantly, how user friendly it is. You are not required to be a finance person to use it. During the initial demonstration I had various internal users (VP, Director, Manager) participate in addition to myself who is a Finance person with lots of software experience. I wanted my internal users to feel comfortable with BudgetPak and not to be intimidated. It was also their feedback that made the decision easy to select BudgetPak. For the features, performance, and robustness I am getting for BudgetPak and the price to implement and maintain it BudgetPak has the edge over its competitor.

Cons

The vanilla canned reports that came with BudgetPak are good, but I would like to see more custom reports or more ways for me to build custom reports. I plan to work with BudgetPak to enhance reports in future version releases.

Pros

BudgetPak was built with the end user (Budget Holder) in mind. The budget process is a simple step by step process made so that "non-finance" people can easily put their annual plan together. Then, as the finance team, you can use that data to run forecasts and long term projections as often as you need. There are also easy Excel integrations for the finance team to use to pull data or upload data directly to the cloud database.

Cons

I haven't used the software for very long, but I am concerned about the "refresh" or initialization times. But it isn't something that would've pushed me away from the product per se as most other options I saw would require the same thing.

Pros

BudgetPak is easy to implement. Only 2 of our 10 users are accounting professionals, everyone learned the system with no issues. The MyXL function allows us to pull budget details quickly for research or custom reports. Standard reports within BudgetPak are easy to use and allows us to quickly compare any of our budgets or actuals. We are very satisfied with the product and customer service.

Cons

Unfortunately, we have some complicated travel calculations for budgeting that still have to be done out of the system. But we are able to attach our worksheets in BudgetPak for reference. This is not a huge issue for us.

Pros

The customer support. Any time there is a question or concern, the XLerant team quickly responds and assists. When there were areas that the software seemed to be lacking, the support team would troubleshoot and came up with working solutions that improved the software greatly.

Cons

From an administrator standpoint, the software is complicated. It has taken me a bit of time to learn all the options within it. In a way, this is a very positive thing as the system has many features useful to different clients. The only issue is that it becomes difficult to train new system administrators and to know that our institution is using the system to it's full effect.

Pros

Real-time rollups, version control, auditability, integrated headcount and capital budgeting. Simple and straightforward from an end-user standpoint, but the real benefit will be to your company's finance team responsible for the overall budgeting process. Easy to configure to your company's needs and powerful in that it always enables you to know where your end-users are in their process and provide real-time updates and snapshots to senior management.

Cons

On-the-fly configuration changes often require a system "reinitialization" which requires the software be taken offline for a short period of time. Can be done off-hours, but in an international company with users all over the world, this can be inconvenient.

Pros

We have been able to keep all data in a centralized place and not in Excel. The ease of use for our end users.

Cons

The standard reporting available. We have employed the Excel add-on to facilitate in what we need.

Pros

BudgetPak is an easy to use, robust budgeting tool for organizations.
*Budget users love it
*Provides transparent payroll budgeting for the budgeting manager
*Security provides different levels of access for users
*Organization wide reports are easy to produce
*Excellent visibility of comparative data - both budgets and actuals
*Ability to spread budget based on several easy to use methodologies

Cons

Wish they made more software products!

Pros

Even users challenged to use Excel understand BudgetPak
Very easy from IT's perspective to install, maintain, and load updates
Great for what-if scenarios
Robust headcount management
Multiple ways to budget - by month, by headcount, by monthly spreading, by percent increase or decrease, etc.
Very useful and intuitive reporting
Smooth interfaces to external sources and our GL system

Cons

BudgetPak is unavailable when Accounting performs maintenance. Not any real problems!

Pros

BudgetPak is amazing, our organization with over 50 centers and 275 employees finds it "user friendly" and very intuitive. The reporting is versatile and exportable. The tech support area is prompt, helpful and answers even the smallest of questions with courtesy and professionalism. All tuitorials are detailed with screenshots and great directions. One of the best software purchases!!!

Cons

Nothing comes to mind - any problems we have encountered have been dealt with promptly with detailed instructions.

Pros

Ease of use
Intuitive approach
More accurate budgeting
More efficient process
Improved communication
Easy access to previous versions
More accountability from managers
Minimal internal IT resources needed (personnel)
Excellent customer service

Cons

I have nothing negative to say about this product.

Pros

Ease of use for users. More visibility for department heads which leads to better decision making

Cons

Limitations in forecast mode. A little complicated for administrator. Lacks instructional manual for administrator.

Pros

BudgetPak is an easy to implement, easy to use budgeting software. Department managers with little budgeting experience are walked through the budgeting process step by step, in a manner similar to Turbo Tax.

Cons

Minor issues with headcount changes

Pros

We used a customized Access approach in the past that was terribly cumbersome and counter-intuitive. BudgetPak is just the opposite. This is our second year with it. I loved it from the start and still do.

Cons

No cons to report

Pros

The software fits our company's need. The client service (Team) is very responsive. The communication portal (basecamp) is very convenient.

Cons

The software BudgetPak is constantly upgraded with new functions and advanced reports, which well satisfies our company's need for budgeting.